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Obama defends Cabinet diversity

“This is about our key five openness and transparency requests and everyone — Gina McCarthy, the EPA and Democratic members of the committee — have known from the beginning that this is our focus.”

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said EPA won’t be hampered in the meantime because Acting Administrator Bob Perciasepe is “more than capable” of leading the agency while Republicans get their concerns resolved.

Democrats have noted that the GOP questions totaled more than 1,000 — what they call a record — with Vitter alone contributing 653.

Republicans also had five “requests” for EPA on issues such as how the agency handles outside groups’ threats of litigation — though Democrats said the GOP senators were actually asking the agency to offer major policy concessions that are technically infeasible and in some cases illegal.

Some Democrats also tied the McCarthy stalemate to last year’s Obama campaign theme that Republicans were waging a “war on women.” And several noted that McCarthy has a bipartisan background, having worked as an environmental appointee to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

As a Romney aide, McCarthy played a crucial role in Massachusetts’s climate protection action plan to combat global warming. She also served as commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection under then-Republican Gov. Jodi Rell.

But for the past four years, McCarthy has been the head of EPA’s air pollution regulation efforts, a bulwark of the Obama administration’s efforts to restrain climate-changing gases, toxic mercury from power plants and pollution from vehicles’ tailpipes. And that makes her nomination easy fodder for a larger proxy fight over the president’s second-term climate agenda.

Environment Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) scoffed at the Republicans’ arguments and vowed to find a way around the boycott.

“Gina McCarthy is going to become the poster child of their obstructionism,” said Boxer, who revealed that she had already delayed Thursday’s scheduled vote for three weeks at Republicans’ request. “Gina McCarthy is a woman who deserves this promotion.”

She said she hadn’t intended to pass McCarthy’s nomination out of committee using only Democratic votes — but she’s prepared to if the Republicans’ boycott continues.

Even that strategy will depend on whether the Democrats can get Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who has been suffering health problems, to attend a meeting in person. Without him, the Democrats won’t have a majority on the panel.

Lautenberg’s office said in a statement later in the day that he’ll be available to vote on McCarthy if he’s needed for a party-line vote. “Sen. Lautenberg will certainly be there if Republicans force Chairman Boxer to take that path,” the statement said.

Boxer said she intends to use all parliamentary options available to her, “including changing the rules of the committee.”